New Elastomers Stretch 1100% for 3D Printing - DesignNews

Researchers have developed a family of elastomers that they believe are the most elastic to date and can be fabricated using 3D-printing technologies, making these useful materials more accessible for a range of applications from soft robots to flexible electronics. A team of engineers from Singapore University of Technology and Design's (SUTD) Digital Manufacturing and Design (DManD) Centre developed the materials, which are believed to be the most stretchable elastomers invented so far, with the ability to stretch by up to 1100 percent, they said. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the materials are suitable for UV-curing-based 3D-printing techniques, which solidify liquid polymer resins to 3D objects through patterned UV light to fabricate elastomeric 3D objects. Previously, most of the commercially available UV-curable 3D-printable elastomers would break at less t...